Wartime appears to increase the risk of chronic pain for military women, a new study suggests. Active-duty servicewomen who served between 2006 and 2013 – a period of heightened combat deployments – had a significantly increased risk of chronic pain compared to women serving at other times, according to results published July 5 in the journal JAMA Network Open. Likewise, female family members of military personnel serving in 2006-2013 also were more likely to experience chronic pain, researchers found. “I was surprised by the magnitude of the effect we observed here, particularly among female civilian spouses,” lead researcher Dr. Andrew Schoenfeld, an orthopedic surgeon with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. “This underscores an overlooked aspect of deployment schedules that the Military Health System must recognize.” About 21% of U.S. adults experience chronic pain, which can persist for months to years, researchers said in background notes. For the new study, researchers analyzed Military Health System medical records for nearly 3.5 million women 18 to 64 from 2006 to 2020. Nearly 325,000 women (9%) had a diagnosis of chronic pain. Researchers divided the women into two groups — those treated from 2006 to 2013, a period of more intense combat exposure, and those treated from 2014 to 2020, when there was significantly less combat exposure. Women in active service from 2006…  read on >  read on >

For decades, millions of Americans popped a low-dose aspirin each day to lower their heart risks. Then, accumulated data prompted the nation’s two leading cardiology groups — the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association — to overturn advisories in 2019 and recommend against daily aspirin, citing a risk for bleeding that exceeded any benefit for most people. Trouble is, many Americans aren’t heeding that message and continue to take the daily pill, a new survey finds. The survey, from a sample representing over 150 million U.S. adults, found that almost a third of heart-healthy people age 60 or older said they took a daily low-dose (81milligrams) aspirin each day in 2021. That’s about 18.5 million older Americans, said a team led by Dr. Mohak Gupta. He’s a physician in internal medicine who conducted the study while at the Cleveland Clinic. He’s now practicing at Houston Methodist.  Add in folks under 60 and the number rises to more than 25.6 million Americans taking daily aspirin, the researchers estimated. Given aspirin’s now dubious risk-benefit ratio for folks at average heart risk, “our findings highlight the urgent need for physicians to inquire about aspirin use, including self-use, and engage in risk–benefit discussions to reduce inappropriate use for primary prevention in older adults,” the researchers said. They published their findings June 24 in the Annals of…  read on >  read on >

For the first time since the pandemic, it got a little safer to cross America’s streets in 2023, new statistics show. According to data released Monday from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), 7,318 American pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles last year — a dip of 5.4% from 2022 and the first such decline seen since the pandemic ended. But it’s no time for celebration: The 2023 number for pedestrian deaths is still 14.1% above pre-pandemic levels. Still, the news is somewhat heartening, said GHSA Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Adkins. “A decline in pedestrian deaths offers hope that, after years of rising fatalities, a new trend is starting,” he said in a GHSA news release. “Each death is tragic and preventable. We know how to improve safety for people walking — more infrastructure, vehicles designed to protect people walking, lower speeds and equitable traffic enforcement. It will take all this, and more, to keep the numbers going in the right direction.” The new data comes from the State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the GHSA said. The report also gave insights into how and where pedestrians are most often killed: There’s been no big change in the kinds of vehicles driven when a pedestrian dies, only that the percentage of deaths involving light trucks ( SUVs, pickups…  read on >  read on >

Cyberbullying and sexual harassment are rampant in the world of professional video gaming and online gaming, a new study reports. Nearly 96% of 145 video game players from 14 countries said they had been targeted online in the previous year. “It’s not just an isolated incident,” said lead researcher Louise Trudgett-Klose, a doctoral student in psychology with the University of South Austrialia. “The fact that 96% of players – professional or otherwise – experienced cyberbullying in the previous 12 months suggests that toxic behaviors are prevalent in the gaming community,” Trudgett-Klose noted in a university news release. Women and professional e-sports players are the most common targets of abuse, results show. Women are targeted most often for sexual harassment in the world of gaming, particularly as they rise through the elite ranks, researchers found. Women make up 46% of the world’s 3 billion video game players, and represent 16% of e-sports competitors and content creators, researchers said in background notes. “There was a definite link between the level of professional gaming and the incidence of cyberbullying, and sexual harassment for women players,” Trudgett Klose said. “The more professional a player becomes, the more they are exposed to hostile behavior.” Gaming professionals who attracted the most fame, with a large fan base and heavy presence on social media platforms, were exposed to the worst levels of…  read on >  read on >

Military veterans often struggle with their mental health once their service ends, but the first clinical trial of its kind has found that having a service dog helps lower the risk of PTSD for these former soldiers. Veterans paired with a service dog had 66% lower odds of a PTSD diagnosis, compared to a control group of vets still waiting for a service dog, researchers reported June 4 in the journal JAMA Network Open. These vets also experienced lower anxiety and depression levels, as well as improvements in most areas of emotional and social well-being, researchers found. “This research reinforces what we have been studying for almost a decade — that service dogs are linked to significant benefits for many veterans suffering from PTSD and other invisible wounds of war,” said lead researcher Maggie O’Haire, associate dean for research at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine. “Service dogs are more than pets — they can be essential partners in helping veterans readjust and thrive after they return from service,” O’Haire said. For the study, researchers tracked more than 150 military veterans over three months.  Vets received their dogs through the program K9s For Warriors, the nation’s largest provider of trained service dogs for military veterans. Most of the dogs provided by K9s For Warriors are rescues, researchers noted. The program trains them, on…  read on >  read on >